Article Digest:
Roasted potatoes make a great addition to any dinner. The best roasted potatoes are full of flavor, crispy on the outside, and soft and velvety on the inside. This can be accomplished easily while preparing your main dish.

First, I start with two pounds of red potatoes. Cut the potatoes into 3/4" to 1" wedges. [IMG]

Salt and pepper the potatoes generously. Toss until salt and pepper have evenly disbursed.[IMG]

Place the potatoes in a 9x13&nbsp;in. baking pan. Arrange the pieces so that the skin side is facing up. This will give us a nice crust on the cut side as it bakes. If desired, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of crushed dried rosemary over the potatoes.[IMG]

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for twenty minutes at 425°F. This will allow the potatoes to bake in their own steam to help the insides fully cook.[IMG]

After twenty minutes, remove the aluminum foil and continue to bake for fifteen more minutes. Using a metal spatula, flip all the potato pieces over so the skin side is now touching the bottom of the pan. Try to keep as much of the crispy crust that has formed on the potato pieces as you flip.[IMG]

Another 15 minutes in the oven and the potatoes should be done. You can keep cooking to achieve the level of color that is desired on the cut side of the potatoes. I usually stop once it reaches a light golden color.

For a strong garlic flavor, simply puree 2 cloves of garlic (once garlic has been minced, scrape with a knife to create a fine mush OR use a zester on the garlic cloves) and put it in a medium bowl. Using a metal spatula, scrape the potatoes out of the pan and into the bowl. The hot potatoes will just barely cook the garlic. Toss well.[IMG]

For a milder garlic flavor, cook the garlic in a teaspoon of oil until it softens (just before it begins to brown). Toss the cooked garlic with the potatoes.

Try a 500 degree oven for 15 minutes, then turn the potatoes, then 15 minutes more. Crisp outside, soft inside.
Everybody freaks when you roast at 500, but it makes a difference.
Even better, get a fresh whole chicken. Add two tablespoons of butter to the cavity, a few lemon wedges and salt and pepper. Do your potatoes and arrange around the chicken in a roasting pan (preferably with two inch high sides). Add 6 cloves of garlic, unpeeled.
Roast at 500 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, use a spoon or spatula to move the chicken around to prevent sticking. Turn the potatoes.
Roast for another 35-45 minutes at 500, turning the potatoes every 15 mintues.
The potatoes roast in the rendered chicken fat. Not diet food, but I've never had a potato go uneaten.

Before covering in alu foil and sticking into the oven, crush a head of garlic from above with the heel of your hand to separate the cloves. Take 2 or 3 cloves (according to taste, but don't be shy) and just throw them in whole with the potatoes.

Don't bother peeling or crushing the garlic, just toss them in. The skin forms a seal around the cloves allowing the garlic to cook in its own vapour, though enough of the vapour escapes to flavour the potatoes. Their skin is porous, whereas the alu isn't so the whole dish is perfumed. The cooking time serves to reduce their pungency.

What you have at the end is a roasted garlic puree contained in its own little skin. Serve them whole mixed in with the potatoes - they can be eaten direct from their skins or pressed with your fork to extract the puree. And don't be scared of adding too much garlic - contrary to popular opinion it's not exceptionally garlicky, but instead the more you add the more the cloves develop a 'sweetness' that goes well with the herbs and salt on the potatoes. Think caramelised onions...

Of course, like all dishes containing garlic, this should be enjoyed with a group of *close* friends...

To keep the potato's moist throw some cherry tomato's in with the pot's under the foil. As the tom's heat up and split the moisture they release really keeps the pots moist and gives you that soft inner. Remember that tom's do retain a lot of heat when you come to remove them from pan.

I prefer to use maris piper pot's for my roast, ideal pot's for this receipe.

To puree usually refers to running something through an electric blender or rubbing it through a fine sieve (like strained or pureed peas as a baby food). Or it can mean to make something into a consistency resembling something that has been puireed. It is this effect that we are looking for (not actually sticking a clove of garlic into a blender and running the blender). To do this I have a few different methods:
1. Chop the garlic into fine pieces. Then, at an angle crush the garlic while making slicing motions to reduce it into a pulp.
2. Rub the garlic through a microplane zester. The resting product will be a pureed mush of garlic.
3. Use a garlic press and then press and cut with a knife until it is baby food consistency.

Thanks for a great site!
My two cents on this recipe: I often make similar oven-roasted potatoes and don't bother covering them with aluminum foil. (But I cut my potatoes in thinner fry-shapes). My tricks for success are:
- Make sure oven is hot (200 to 230° Celcius) and well preheated
- Preheat for a few minutes the cookie sheet on which you'll bake the potatoes
- Use a paper lining on the pan (so potatoes don't stick and no mess to clean up)

Total cooking time about 30 minutes, turning them over a couple of times.

The longer I leave the potatoes in the oven, the crispier they get, though at some point they get a bit dry if left too long.

I have a recipe that will make the best roast potatoes you have ever eaten - please try it and let me know what you think. You have my permission to include it on your site. I believe this produces a MUCH better tasting (albeit unhealthier!) and more traditional roast potato than the method you include.

Ingredients:
King edward potatoes
Salt
Fresh thyme
Fresh rosemary
Beef dripping or goose fat (the use of animal fat is imperative to get the best flavour)

Preheat oven to 180C.
Peel and cut the potaoes into roughly equal sized portions -usually thirds with king edwards.
Par boil in well salted water until just soft on the outside (about 10 mins)
Preheat your roasting dish with a lot of fat in it - enough to fill the bottom of the dish to a depth of about 5mm.
Drain the potatoes and then toss them around fairly vigourously in the pan to fluff the edges of the potatoes - this is VERY important as the fluffed edges will brown and crisp beautifully.
Add the potatoes to the hot fat and using a spoon baste them with the fat (The fat MUST be sizzling hot before you add the potatoes).
Bash up some thyme and rosemary in a pestle and mortar and sprinkle this over the potatoes along with some black pepper.
Return the pan to the oven and roast until done approx 40 mins to an hour at 180 C basting and turning every 10 to 15 mins.

I forgot to say - FRESH thyme and rosemary and the poatoes should be cut to about golf ball sized. And use ANIMAL FAT not veg based oils. I know its not good for you but it tastes a hell of a lot better. Also to the guy named big - try roasting your meat (duck / lamb works best as it has a high fat content)on a rack with the potatoes underneath - the fat renders and drips down onto the potatoes below and gives an unbelievable flavour. But remember to par boil the poatoes and beat them up in the saucepan first!!!!